As search engine powerhouses like Google will continue to play a critical role in driving traffic to your business, finding ways to take your content marketing strategy up a notch is key.
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We often hear business owners asking what they can do to produce better content at a faster pace than their competition. While there is not really a magic formula for accomplishing this, there are several tactics that the best content writers out there embrace. Here are 5 best practices to let soak into your mental framework so that you can put forth a content marketing strategy that rocks:

1. Be an active listener.
Take the time to regularly read through your emails from customers and the comments on your blog posts and social media posts. Your audience uses these forums to share with you what their challenges are, what they're thinking about, and what they want to improve upon. Considering this, your email inbox, business blog, and social media pages are all perfect places to fish for phenomenal content ideas that will really resonate with your audience. By actively listening to your audience's needs and addressing them, you will build authority and loyalty for your brand.

2. Always be researching.
How many times have you read a great article that you knew you would want to refer to later on, but forgot to bookmark it? Save yourself the agony of having to backtrack to find such articles and take advantage of online research tools to keep these great content ideas organized. If you come across a topic that you feel will really add value to your audience, pin the article to a Pinterest board where you store a running list of content topics or take advantage of a global Google document to jot down these ideas for your entire team to see. Having a dedicated online space to keep these ideas organized can save you a tremendous amount of time when it comes to brainstorming new content topics.

3. Monitor how your content performs.
Naturally, there will be some pieces of content that you publish that will make more of an impression with your audience than others. To really amplify your content marketing efforts, regularly monitor how your content is performing with your audience and find ways to repurpose the content that generates the most engagement with your customers.

4. Make sure that your content is always delivering value.
All too often, businesses fall prey to writing content that is really a sales pitch instead of delivering value. The best content addresses an issue or challenge that your audience may be facing, educates them on this topic, and offers entertaining value as well. If you write a blog post and you find that it does not include these three elements, you need to make some serious edits.

5. Make the most of negative feedback.
When your brand has an online presence, it's inevitable that you will receive a negative comment from an angry customer at one point or another. Proactively using social media monitoring tools to promptly address this feedback is one part of the equation. The best content marketers also use this negative feedback to find ways to better deliver content to your audience in the future.
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So these are just 5 best practices to help amplify your content marketing strategy. We'd love to hear from you about what your favorite tricks of the trade are for writing better content and delivering value to your audience.